The families of Israeli victims of Palestinian attacks appealed Monday against the imminent release of long-serving Palestinian prisoners as part of US-brokered peace talks, media reported.

The Supreme Court has always rejected such appeals.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to the phased release of 104 Palestinian prisoners in line with commitments to the US-backed talks, which resumed in July, and previous batches were freed in August and October.

The 26 prisoners expected to be released late on Monday were jailed before the signing of the 1993 Oslo accords, which formally launched the Middle East peace process, and have served 19 to 28 years for killing Israeli civilians or soldiers.

The release was expected to begin at 10 p.m. Monday, just days before US Secretary of State John Kerry is due back in the region for the latest round of talks.

Emotions run high on both sides over the issue of Palestinian prisoners, with Israelis viewing jailed militants as murderers and Palestinians hailing them as heroes imprisoned for fighting against the Israeli occupation.

"One of the things we knew when we captured these detainees is that they needed to stay in prison for the maximum period," Meir Indor, director of the Almagor, the Israeli group launching the appeal, told the Jerusalem Post.

"These men are time bombs. Wherever they go they kill, because that's the purpose of their lives."

Issa Qaraqe, the PA minister of prisoner affairs, dismissed the Israeli complaints, saying: "Israel is a murderous state and these prisoners are freedom fighters."

President Mahmoud Abbas has called for the release of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and was to welcome those released Monday at an official ceremony in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Israel holds more than 5,000 Palestinians in its prisons, most of them on security grounds. Around 150 are held under administrative detention, without charge or trial, and another 150 are minors.

The two previous prisoner releases were accompanied by announcements of new construction plans for Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, including annexed East Jerusalem.

Monday's release is expected to be no different, despite US and EU appeals against such announcements.

Israeli media reports suggested Netanyahu was likely to unveil plans to build an additional 1,400 housing units, on top of those already announced, following strong pressure from ultra-nationalist members of his governing coalition.

Eighteen of the prisoners to be released Monday are from the occupied West Bank, with another three from Gaza and five from annexed east Jerusalem, according to Sivan Weizman, a spokesman for the Israeli prisons service.

Families of Israeli victims have accused Netanyahu of reneging on promises not to release East Jerusalem residents, who have ID cards that entitle them to social services.

A relative of prisoner Said al-Tamimi weeps as family and friends prepare his home after receiving the news of his impending release from an Israeli jail, in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, on December 29, 2013.By Charlie Hoyle

Conditions attached to the release of Palestinian prisoners prove that Israel is not serious about the peace process, the director of rights group Addameer said Monday as 26 Palestinians prepared to be freed from Israeli jails.

Israeli authorities are expected to release the veteran Palestinian prisoners after midnight in the third stage of a phased agreement to free 104 detainees in line with commitments to US-brokered peace talks, which began in July.

In October, Israel released a group of 26 Palestinians detained before the 1993 Oslo Accords, while a first group was freed on Aug. 13.

Sahar Francis, general director of rights group Addameer, said that while any release of prisoners is welcome, strict Israeli conditions on freed detainees undermine "hope" and "trust" in the peace process.

"Israel has showed it is putting conditions on prisoner releases and the US supports these conditions. Prisoners held before 1993 should have been released 20 years ago, and not today," she told Ma'an.

Francis says that Israel restricts the freedom of movement of Palestinians freed as part of political agreements, with residents of East Jerusalem banned from visiting the West Bank or Gaza Strip following their release.

West Bank residents are banned from leaving their district for months, and in some cases up to a year, following a return to civilian life, while released prisoners are also prohibited from leaving the country for varying periods of time depending on their sentence, with some permanently banned.

Any involvement in political activities can be also grounds for rearrest and imprisonment by Israeli authorities.

"These practices show that the Israelis are not really seeking justice and a lasting peace with the Palestinians," Francis said.

"If the Israelis really had good intentions to end the conflict and grant Palestinians basic rights under international law they should release all Palestinian prisoners and stop arresting Palestinians in the occupied territories."

Israel treats Palestinians like 'terrorists'

In past prisoner releases, Israel has rearrested dozens of ex-detainees under Military Order 1651, which Francis says violates the most "basic rights" of Palestinian prisoners.

The order, which was implemented in 2009, allows for an Israeli military committee to sentence detainees to serve the remainder of their previous sentence under secret information not made available to lawyers.

Francis says the order was implemented by Israel to prepare "legally" for the release of prisoners which Israel would be reluctant to free and to impose conditions which would allow them to be rearrested in the future.

Israel has also violated international law by stipulating that freed detainees be deported to the Gaza Strip, or abroad, as part of the conditions of their release, Francis said.

Both Samer Issawi and Ayman Sharawna were rearrested by Israel under Military Order 1651 after being freed in the 2011 prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas, with Sharawna eventually deported to Gaza for 10 years after agreeing to end hunger strike action.

Hana Shalabi was also rearrested under the military order and subsequently deported to Gaza for three years under the conditions of her release.

These new procedures represent "serious violations" of human rights and prove that the Palestinian community can see little hope in the future of the peace process, Francis says.

Furthermore, Israel continues its policy of daily arrests in the occupied West Bank, which has increased in recent months, and has never committed to stopping the mass arrest of Palestinians while negotiations are taking place, Francis says.

"Israel recognizes Palestinians as terrorists and not as people seeking their independence and self determination, and this makes the whole difference in the treatment of prisoners in the political channel."

"We are happy that these 26 prisoners who spent years of their life in jail are being freed, of course the sadness is in thinking of the remaining 5,000 prisoners who are suffering behind bars."

Israel agreed to release 104 veteran Palestinian prisoners who have been in custody since before the 1993 Oslo Accords as part of a plan to resume peace negotiations after talks were halted for more than two years.

The release of the 26 Palestinian prisoners set for Dec. 31 is the third part of that four-stage deal, and Israel has already released 52 prisoners in two previous rounds.

Before the names of this round of prisoners were made public, Israeli military radio said Netanyahu would announce the construction of 1,400 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank coinciding with the release.

Over 5,200 Palestinians are being held in Israeli jails according to the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs.

Since 1967, more than 650,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel, representing 20 percent of the total population and 40 percent of all males in the occupied territories.

Under international law, it is illegal to transfer prisoners outside of the occupied territory in which they are detained, and the families of Palestinian prisoners' face many obstacles in obtaining permits to see their imprisoned relatives.

The internationally recognized Palestinian territories of which the West Bank and East Jerusalem form a part have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.

Israel will be releasing on Monday [December 30 2013] 26 veteran Palestinian detainees who have been held since before the first Oslo agreement of 1993.

The detainees will be released by midnight; Israel is currently finalizing paperwork and some medical tests before the release.

This would mark the implementation of the third phase of releasing all
veteran detainees as part of direct political talks between Tel Aviv and
Ramallah.

A week ago, the special Israeli committee, in charge of the release,
determined the names of the 26 detainees, and published them to grant
the Israelis the chance to file appeals.

The fourth and final stage of releasing veteran detainees will be
conducted on March 28, 2014. In total 104 veteran detainees will be
freed.

During the first and second phases, Israel released, back in mid-August
26 veteran detainees (14 from Gaza and 12 from the West bank), and in
late October it released 26 veteran detainees (21 from Gaza and 5 from
the West Bank).

The release is part of an American-mediated directs peace talks were resumed, back in July this year.

Israeli fundamentalist legislators and officials tried to block the release, and called for voiding it.

In a recent report, the Census Department of the Palestinian Ministry of
Detainees published its annual report stating that Israeli soldiers
kidnapped, this year, 3874 Palestinians, including 931 children.

The Census Department said that 1975 of the kidnapped are between the
ages of 18 and 30 (%51 of the total number of kidnapped Palestinians),
the number includes 931 children (% 24) below the age of 18.

Israel's prison administration transferred 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners to a jail near Ramallah ahead of their imminent release, a Palestinian official said.

Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Qaraqe said that the Israeli prison administration brought the prisoners -- who are scheduled to be released at 1 a.m. Tuesday -- to Ofer prison, west of Ramallah.

The prisoners will have a medical check-up before their release, Qaraqe said.

A statement from the Israeli government warned that any "violent conduct" by any prisoner would result in his re-arrest and a continuation of his original sentence.

Israel agreed to release 104 veteran Palestinian prisoners who have been in custody since before the 1993 Oslo Accords as part of a plan to resume peace negotiations after talks were halted for more than two years.

The release of the 26 Palestinian prisoners set for Dec. 31 is the third part of that four-stage deal, and Israel has already released 52 prisoners in two previous rounds.

Before the names of this round of prisoners were made public, Israeli military radio said Netanyahu would announce the construction of 1,400 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank coinciding with the release.

The Israeli prison service published Saturday night on its website a list of 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners slated to be released Monday as a third group of prisoners who have been detained before the Oslo Accords of 1994.

Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman of for the Israeli prime minister’s office, said the prisoners would be released at least 48 hours after the list had been made public.

He reiterated that an Israeli ministerial committee which ratified the list stressed that if released prisoners resume “aggressive attacks” they will be sent back to jail and serve their original sentences.

Ahead of the announcement, Israeli military radio said that Israel planned to announce the construction of 1,400 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank to coincide with the release.

Israel agreed to release 104 veteran Palestinian prisoners who have been in custody since before the 1993 Oslo Accords as part of a plan to resume peace negotiations after talks were halted for more than two years.

The release of two dozen Palestinian prisoners on Dec. 29 is the third part of that four-stage deal, and Israel has already released 52 prisoners in two previous rounds.

Israel has informed the United States that the third group of veteran Palestinian prisoners will be released a day later than originally promised.

Spokeswoman for the US Department of State Jen Psaki said in a statement, "Although we had expected the release to occur on December 29, we have been informed that technical issues made it necessary to do the release a day later."

The Undersecretary of the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners Ziad Abu Ein told Ma'an that delaying the release one day will ruin the joy of prisoners and their families who await their release.

Abu Ein added that all the preparations to greet them were made for the 29th but will now have to be postponed to December 30.

The news comes a day after Israeli military radio announced that Israel planned to announce the construction of 1,400 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank to coincide with the prisoner release.

Israel agreed to release 104 veteran Palestinian prisoners who have been in custody since before the 1993 Oslo Accords as part of a plan to resume peace negotiations after talks were halted for more than two years.

The release of two dozen Palestinian prisoners on December 29 is the third part of that four-stage deal, and Israel has already released 52 prisoners in two previous rounds.

The last batch are expected to be released in March 2014.

Direct negotiations began in July between Israel and the Palestinians in a US-led attempt to restart the deadlocked peace process. Israel has announced plans to build thousands of homes in illegal settlements across the West Bank over the course of the talks, inhibiting US efforts.

The Palestinian negotiating team resigned in protest against continued Israeli settlement construction in mid-November, dealing a major blow to negotiations between Israel and the PLO that had already been stalled.

Negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh told AFP at the time that they resigned in response to "increasing settlement building (by Israel) and the absence of any hope of achieving results," following Netanyahu's announcement that Israel would build 20,000 new settlement homes in the West Bank.

The internationally recognized Palestinian territories of which the West Bank and East Jerusalem form a part have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.

Israel will announce plans for new settlement construction next week, coinciding with the release of a third batch of Palestinian prisoners as part of peace talks, an official said Thursday.

"The Israeli government will announce tenders for new construction in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem which will coincide with the release of a third group of Palestinian prisoners," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Two previous rounds of prisoner releases in August and October have been accompanied by Israeli announcements of fresh construction on land the Palestinians want for a future state, provoking Palestinian ire.

Israeli daily Maariv on Tuesday published names of some of the veteran Palestinian prisoners Israel intends to release next week as a third group of 104 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails before the Oslo Accords of 1994.

Maariv titled the piece “A new group of terrorists will be released next week.” The report published names and details of Israelis killed in operations carried out by the prisoners scheduled to be released.

In April, Israel agreed to release 104 veteran Palestinian prisoners who have been in custody before the Oslo Accords to encourage the PLO to resume peace negotiations with Israel after the process was stopped for more than two years.

Among the names of prisoners to be released, according to Maariv, are Salim Suleiman Muhammad and Adam Ibrahim Jumaa who were convicted of hurling Molotov cocktails at a settlers’ bus near Jericho in 1988 killing a woman and her three children as well as an Israeli soldier.

Jamil Hasan Abu Srour and Hasan Abdul-Hamid Abu Srour will also be released. Maariv highlighted that the two killed an Israeli intelligence officer in Jerusalem in 1993.

Maariv added that Issa Mouaa Issa Muhammad, who kidnapped then killed Israeli border guard officer Nissim Toledano in Lod in 1992 would be freed as well.

The list includes Palestinian prisoner Yusuf Abdul-Jawwad Shamasnah who killed Israeli soldier Yehoshua (Jason) Friedberg in 1993. Yusuf was scheduled to be freed in the second group, but the US opposed his release because the soldier who was killed in the operation was an American citizen.

Maariv highlighted that the US could oppose once again the release of Shamasnah, but Israel is expected use that to exert pressure on the US to release the Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard who is serving a life sentence in the US.

U.S. Secretary of State says nine-month timeframe to achieve final agreement is still on; emphasizes that goal is final agreement, not interim deal.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that the third group of Palestinian prisoners will be released as planned on December 29.

Speaking at a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv before departing to Vietnam, Kerry said the U.S. is "not talking at this point about any shifts (in the schedule)." Over the last week, Kerry attempted to convince the Palestinians to agree to delay the prisoner release by a month, fearing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after the planned release, would declare another wave of settlement construction which could derail the peace process.

Kerry had offered the Palestinians that the fourth group of prisoners will be released sooner so more than 60 Palestinian prisoners will be released at the end of January at once. Kerry had wanted the prisoner release to take place at the same time as the presentation of the "framework agreement" which he plans to formulate with both sides in the coming weeks.

The Palestinians rejected Kerry's offer and claimed it was a violation of the agreements that were reached in order to restart the peace talks. The Palestinians stressed that if the prisoner release would not take place on the date planned they would see themselves as free to pursue unilateral moves in the United Nations.

Kerry's press conference came after a three-hour meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Thursday night and another meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Friday morning. Kerry's visit in Jerusalem and Ramallah proved to be a difficult operation due to the heavy snowstorms in the area.

In the press conference, Kerry emphasized that there is no plan to extend the nine-month timeframe that has been given to renewed peace talks. "Our goal remains a final status agreement. Not an interim agreement," he said.

Kerry praised Netanyahu and Abbas on their serious intentions regarding the peace talks and said a final agreement "will make Israelis and Palestinians more secure and prosperous."

US Security of State John Kerry decided to postpone the release of the third batch of the Palestinian prisoners scheduled to be released at the end of this month, Maariv reported It reported that Kerry put pressure on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in order to soften his positions towards the negotiation process with Israel.

Palestinian media sources reported that Kerry's decision came after Abbas refuted U.S. security proposal in the Jordan valley .

The sources reported that Kerry determined to develop a joint Israeli- Palestinian peace statement next month.

The Israeli government is considering forcing Palestinian detainees from Jerusalem and historic Palestine into exile should they be released under an agreement with the Palestinian Authority.

The detainees have been imprisoned since before the first Oslo Agreement of 1994.

Israel refused to release any of the 27 detainees during the first and second phases in which it released, back in mid-August 26 veteran detainees (14 from Gaza and 12 from the West bank, and in late October when it released 26 veteran detainees (21 from Gaza and five from the West Bank).

Tel Aviv will be releasing more detainees on December 29, and on March 28 2014.

A number of Arab members of the Israeli Knesset visited veteran Palestinian detainees who told them that “not being released this December would be an act of betrayal against them”, and “a sort of capital punishment imposed on them by Palestinian negotiators.”

They urged the Palestinian Authority (PA) not to succumb to Israeli pressure, and said that they will not accept to be forced into exile in return for their release. They are demanding to be sent home once they are freed.

The Wattan News Agency has reported that Arab Mk’s Basel Ghattas and Ibrahim Sarsour met a number of senior Palestinian political leaders held by Israel, including Marwan Barghouthi, who said that all Jerusalem and historic Palestine detainees must be released during the third phase.

Ghattas told the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera that the detained leaders said all detainees refuse to be exiled from Palestine in return for their release, adding that this issue resembles one of the ways Israel avoids implementing its agreements and vows.

He further stated that the release of all 114 veteran detainees has nothing to do with the progress of peace talks, as the talks were resumed in exchange of having the P.A. suspend its lawsuits against Israel in International Courts.

On his part, Sarsour said Israel has been using the issue of the detainees to blackmail the P.A into providing more concessions on core issues, while the steadfastness and the ongoing struggle of the detainees themselves has always been strong.

A planned release of 26 Palestinian prisoners has provoked feuding within Israel’s governing coalition, already under strain from US-brokered peace talks. The inmates, all of whom were allegedly convicted of murder in the killing of Israelis before or just after the first interim Israeli-Palestinian peace accords were signed 20 years ago, were due to go free after midnight on Tuesday. Cutting short their life sentences has been particularly grating for many Israelis because prisoner releases were a Palestinian condition for reviving peace talks last August that few people on either side of the conflict believe will succeed. In all, 104 long-serving prisoners will go free. A first group of 26 was let out two months ago in keeping with understandings reached during shuttle diplomacy by US Secretary of State John Kerry. “The release of terrorists in return for (Israeli chief negotiator) Tzipi Livni’s dubious right to meet (Palestinian counterpart Saeb) Erekat is very grave,” the Jewish Home party, a far-right member of the government, said in statement at the weekend. Jewish Home, led by Naftali Bennett, then tried to get a proposal to freeze further prisoner releases past a ministerial committee, where members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party voted it down on Sunday. “The picture is now clear: the government, unlike one of its member-parties, is acting in the national interest...this government is moving the peace process forward,” Livni, head of the small, centrist Hatnuah party, wrote on her Facebook page after Jewish Home’s proposed law was rejected. The squabbling did not end there. Bennett criticized Likud ministers, saying: “The release of terrorists is immoral, it weakens Israel and endangers its citizens, and we will continue to fight it in a democratic way.” In an apparent attempt to appease Jewish Home and hardliners within Likud, government officials said new housing projects would be announced soon in West Bank settlement blocs that Israel intends to keep in any future peace deal. Israeli political commentators suggested that Bennett, whose party has 12 of parliament’s 120 seats, had latched on to the prisoners issue as a way to swing Netanyahu’s traditional right-wing supporters his way and establish himself as an alternative leader for the camp. Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s strategic affairs minister and a Likud member, made clear in a radio interview on Monday that by agreeing to the prisoner releases, the government effectively had quashed a Palestinian demand to halt settlement building. “The issue of freeing prisoners is certainly most painful for all of us. But strategically, the price of freezing construction in settlements would be much higher,” Steinitz said. For Palestinians, who view settlements that Israel has erected on land captured in the 1967 Middle East war as obstacles to a state, brethren jailed by Israel are heroes in a fight for independence. On the other side of the divide, families of Israelis killed in Palestinian attacks held a vigil outside Ofer prison in the West Bank, where the prisoners slated for release were being held. And at a military cemetery in Jerusalem, opponents of the release placed black signs, with a drawing of a bloody hand, on graves. — Reuters

Tadhamun Foundation for Human Rights said that the occupation authorities imposed 4 conditions on the prisoners who were released on Tuesday evening. The Foundation quoted the liberated prisoner Mo'ayed Hajja, from Burqa village in Nablus, as saying that the occupation authorities informed the ex-detainees who live in the West Bank they will not be allowed to travel outside the Palestinian territories for 10 years, and that they are prevented from moving outside the borders of their districts for a whole year. For his part, liberated captive Ahmed Abdul Aziz from Jenin said that the occupation also informed them that for a year they need to appear before an intelligence officer in the nearest liaison office in the beginning of each month. Abdul Aziz pointed out that the ex-detainees also signed a pledge not to engage in any political or military activity, and if any of them violates this condition he will be re-arrested. The Israeli authorities on Tuesday evening released 26 prisoners from the West Bank and Gaza Strip who were arrested before to the signing of the Oslo agreement.